Straus’ biggest critics funding Turner’s campaign for speaker

FORT WORTH — Rep. Scott Turner’s campaign to oust House Speaker Joe Straus from his leadership post has the sort of profile that big money buys.

His booth is one of the largest in the at the entire convention. The sway is plentiful — T-shirts, plastic footballs, paper fans, thunder sticks, all of which are imbued with his name — and given away freely. None of that is cheap. And much of it is being paid for by some of Straus’ biggest critics: Jeff Sandefer, Wallace Hall and Tim Dunn.

Of the $305,755 Turner has received in donations and in-kind contributions, as of the most recent campaign finance report, more than a third of it ($124,128.45) has come from those three men.

And yes, those names should seem familiar, especially if you’ve been following the power struggle at the University of Texas at Austin: Hall, a Perry-appointed University of Texas regent, has been duking it out with a Straus-appointed committee that is seeking his impeachment. Sandefer, a longtime Perry donor, is the mastermind behind a series of controversial proposals to overhaul the state’s higher education system, which were fiercely resisted by the UT administration. And Dunn is a major source of funding for Empower Texans, run by Michael Quinn Sullivan, who has been a vocal critic of both Powers, Straus, and the efforts to impeach Hall.

While most observers don’t believe Turner will be able to find anywhere near enough votes to topple the incumbent, that hasn’t stopped Straus’ most vocal critics from mounting a highly visible campaign to do just that.

Cut to Thursday afternoon in the exhibition hall at the Republican Party of Texas’ biennial convention: A large crowd has gathered around Turner’s booth. He’s standing near the center of the booth, waiting for him to speak. But before any politician can speak, there must be an introduction. And in this case, the introduction was provided by Straus’ most visible critic — Sullivan.